This girl is amazing! Having taught elementary school for longer than forever, can't tell you how hard it is to get some kids to read even one book, let alone 1,000. For most of them it's some form of life-sucking torture that takes them away from the important things in life.

Way2Old4Dis wrote:Meanwhile, my toddler granddaughter has read the same book 1,000 times.

And don't tell me that you don't learn anything from books. My kids just talked about national socialism and the Holocaust at school, and of course we talked about it at home as well.Then my daughter suddenly said: "It's somehow similar to Harry Potter. The nazis were like the pure-bloods, jews like muggels and Hitler like Voldemort."Don't tell me that you don't learn from reading...

Belated 6th Happy Birthday! COH! I've been posting here for over three years and have laughed and learned and mostly enjoyed every minute. THANK YOU, KATIE for setting up this forum. It's the best fan site ever and I hope it goes on for as long as George does.

I just read an article in our local newspaper:In the town my husband works, there's a very expensive hotel, and a homeless man is always sitting near the entrance of this hotel because there's a ventilation grid for warm air, and he uses this to stay warm. The hotel staff doesn't mind him sitting there, instead they bring him a hot coffee or tea or a soup regularly. Since he's very friendly, pedestrians are used to seeing him as well and iften bring him something to eat or drink as well. Now it's freezing cold (about 13°F) with a lot of snow, and this homeless man wasn't at the hotel. So the hotel staff and also some pedestrians called the local police because they worried for him. And the police told everybody that they took care of him, in a very cold night they offered him to spend the night at the police station - which he accepted - , and now he's in a hostel until it's warmer.Sometimes there's hope for the world - to imagine that the hotel staff didn't tell the man to go away, look after him instead, pedestrians care for him, and the police offers him a warm place as well...

Today I went home from work by bus since my husband needed our car, and we only have one. A family sat next to me, father, mother and a little boy and girl, maybe four or five. The family seems to be from Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq or somewhere in that area, and they spoke Arabic (I guess). Suddenly, in the midst of talking Arabic, the little girl started singing 'Old Mac Donald had a farm' in English and a very popular German song for children in German. This was so lovely, a sign saying 'Look at her. She's able to combine different worlds. Why can't we?'

Several children were among more than 25 people unaccounted for, feared dead, Thursday after an avalanche engulfed a mountain hotel in earthquake-ravaged central Italy.

The national civil protection agency said the Hotel Rigopiano had suffered a direct hit by a two-metre (six-feet) high wall of snow on Wednesday.

Emergency services were struggling to get ambulances and excavation equipment to the remote site with the first snow plough only arriving just before midday.

Italian broadcasters showed images of piles of masonry and rubble inside the hotel, which had been moved some ten metres from its original location by the force of the snow.

Local officials confirmed that one body had been recovered from the ruins and that two guests who were not inside when the avalanche struck had been saved.

Civil protection chief Fabrizio Curcio said there had been around 30 guests and staff at the small ski hotel on the eastern lower slopes of the Gran Sasso mountain when the first of four powerful tremors rattled the region on Wednesday morning.

Francesco Provolo, the head of the Pescara province where the disaster occurred, said there had been around 20 people staying at the hotel, including "several children" along with seven or eight staff.

Specialist mountain police who had reached the hotel on skis or by helicopter overnight had begun trying to move the rubble with spades.

They were quoted as saying there were no signs of life inside the building while one of their commanding officers told reporters: "There are many dead."

Ambulances were blocked by two metres of snow in the nearest village, Farindola, some nine kilometres (5.5 miles) away, according to the civil protection agency.

Antonio Di Marco, president of Pescara province, said: "What is certain is that the building took a direct hit from the avalanche, to the point that it was moved by 10 metres."

Farindola mayor Ilario Lacchetta described the "huge dimensions" of the snowslide. "It took the whole hotel with it," he said.

- Hypothermia -

One of the two survivors was helicoptered to a hospital in Pescara suffering from hypothermia but was not in a life-threatening condition.

Rai television reported that one of them had told rescuers that his wife and child were trapped in the hotel.

The region was hit by four seismic shocks measuring above five magnitude in the space of four hours on Wednesday, when at least one person was confirmed to have died.

The hotel is located around 90 kilometres (55 miles) from the epicentre of the quakes at Montereale, a small village south of Amatrice, the town devastated in an August earthquake in which nearly 300 people died.

Avalanche warnings were issued across a region dominated by Gran Sasso, a majestic 2,912 metres (9,554 feet) peak. The area has numerous small ski resorts popular with day-trippers from Rome and urban centres on Italy's east coast.

The one person confirmed dead Wednesday was a man found buried under the debris of a building in Castel Castagna, a small town to the north of Farindola.

The quake affected an area that straddles the regions of Lazio, Marche and Abruzzo which is home to many remote mountain hamlets.

Although many residents had been evacuated after last year's quakes, there were fears for families who had decided to stay in their homes and are now cut off.

Guido Castelli, the mayor of the Marche town of Ascoli said his staff were trying to check on around 1,000 people in cut-off hamlets. "It is like Waiting for Godot," he said.

Some 130,000 homes were without electricity overnight as a result of quake-damage to pylons and other infrastructure.

Schools in the affected region have been closed until next week to allow structural safety checks to be carried out.

Feels like I'm always posting sad news....... Horrid tornadoes in Georgia and Mississippi....many dead. Love and prayers to any of our COH family dealing with this tragedy..weather.com/storms/tornado/news/severe-weather-forecast-south-high-risk-tornadoes-january-2017

An outbreak of tornadoes tore through parts of the Deep South from January 21-22, 2017. At least 19 deaths are being blamed on severe weather across the Deep South and Gulf Coast.(NEWS: Latest Severe Impacts)

From the morning of January 21 through January 22, 41 reports of tornadoes were received by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center in five southern states from Louisiana to South Carolina.A deadly EF3 tornado touched down in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, early on January 21, which caused considerable damage and killed four people.Middle Georgia saw numerous reports of tornadoes during the day on Saturday with damage reported.Saturday afternoon, a dozen homes were damaged in Natchitoches, Louisiana, and one man was sucked from his house in an apparent tornado, while another was injured in a mobile home as it was struck by a tornado.

12 deaths are being blamed on a likely tornado (or tornadoes) that struck Brooks County, Berrien County and Cook County in Georgia early Sunday morning.

A rare "high risk" severe weather outlook was issued on Sunday morning by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center (SPC). This was the first high risk severe weather outlook to be issued by SPC since June 3, 2014, which gives an idea of how unusual they are.

Sunday afternoon, damage from a possible tornado was reported in Opelika, Alabama.

A tornado emergency was issued for the Albany, Georgia, area after radar showed a debris signature as the storm passed near the city. At least 3 deaths have been confirmed from this particular twister.

tornado emergency was also issued for southern Wilcox County, Georgia, potentially from the same tornado (or tornadoes) that impacted the Albany area. Homes were reportedly heavily damaged along American Legion Road near the town of Kramer, Georgia, north of Rebecca, Georgia.

PAN I do not think Trump made mention of this disaster in Italy. Reluctantly giving him the benefit of the doubt since he wasn't officially President when the avalanche occurred. He did send his thoughts and promise to help to those in Georgia and Mississippi affected by the tornadoes.

What a shame about this beautiful hotel and the loss of life. Hopefully more will be found soon! A bit of a bright light in that the dogs and the puppies survived.

Mary Tyler Moore has died. She was 80. I loved 'The Mary Tyler Moore' show back in the 1970s. I was just starting out as a working woman and I saw her character as a role model. Mary's character was strong and classy. I admired the way she handled herself. And I thought she had such cool clothes and loved her apartment.

Her standout role for me was 'Ordinary People'. I remember George saying a few years back that he was a big admirer of Mary Tyler Moore and her work.

Two German movies are nominated for an Oscar this year.One of them is called 'Toni Erdmann', it's a really interesting movie about a complicated father-daughter relationship (nominated for 'Best foreign film').Tge other on is a short documentary about a Syrian family who's trying to escape from Aleppo while the father is trying to fight the Assad regime. I've seen it on TV, it's really interesting to recognize the the mother's emancipation who's suddenly responsible for her kids' survival and leaves him and everything behind. They now live just about 20 miles away from my hometown, in the town my husband works, and they shot quite a lot of shots there.

Donnamarie wrote:Mary Tyler Moore has died. She was 80. I loved 'The Mary Tyler Moore' show back in the 1970s. I was just starting out as a working woman and I saw her character as a role model. Mary's character was strong and classy. I admired the way she handled herself. And I thought she had such cool clothes and loved her apartment.

Her standout role for me was 'Ordinary People'. I remember George saying a few years back that he was a big admirer of Mary Tyler Moore and her work.

Well before 'Mary Richards,' 'Laura Petrie' was one of the great all-time TV characters. MTM was absolutely perfect in that role. The iconic 1970's show was legendary, but icing on a great cake, IMO.

And then she goes and nails it in 'Ordinary People,' which is in my top five (or so) favorite movies.

In forty or fifty years, nobody is going to want to bother with distributing stuff like 'Two Broke Girls' on whatever media platforms we'll have. But I'm willing to bet that somewhere you'll be able to turn on 'The Dick Van Dyke Show' and the 'Mary Tyler Moore Show' for your late-night comfort viewing.

One of the few people who created a true role model through a character. Such a loss.